Bin, Qian-Jun, Zheng-Lin's work on controlled radical ring-opening polymerization (RROP) of VDCPs under RAFT and PET-ATRP conditions has been published on JACS.
In this work, simple and stable VDCPs have been identified as a new monomer class for RROP, guided by their stereoelectronic similarity with butatrienes. Poly(VDCP)s with a highly structurally regular alkyne-based backbone were produced through an exclusive conjugation-directed terminal-selective propagation followed by rapid ring-opening of the resulting vinyl radical. Complete ring-opening and no backbiting were observed regardless of polymerization conditions.
